http://www.jaffnalibrary.com/tools/

This site uses a transliteration system. 'Insert your phrase in
plain English' means use the English alphabet. Then the Tamil
appears in the other box, if you have the unicode Tamil font
installed. So you can see the display of the English alphabet as
you type and the Tamil happens in the other box with all the
reshaping, reordering and ligatures. Once you know the rules it
really works.

Now for a word processor I think you have to download this and
then you can keyboard with a transparent or non-transparent
display of English. I can see that an adult who can use English
fluently could learn this without any English display. Children
could learn the English alphabet input for Tamil like Chinese
children learning Pinyin and with the English alphabet visual
feedback it would work.

I feel confident that I could use this. Of course, if someone who
was Tamil had read any of these posts well they could have
enlightened me earlier. But I did spend a few hours in Tamil
email sites the last few days and reading Tamil yahoo group
posts. Then I followed a few links and there it was.

No most of the Chinese students had never used Pinyin input on
the computer before my class but they did know Pinyin. I don't
really see any difference in kids from different countries and how
they use technology as long as the technology itself is on par.

But yes the technology issues themselves have been resolved
earlier in some countres than others. Well, tomorrow the
children are going to share their favourite genre of literature,
comics, from their own country, as well as North America, some
using online resources so I will have a lighthearted day.

Thank you for all your interaction. If anyone has anything to add
or tries out any application that works well let me know. And no
thank you, I do not want to visualize anything original. Also any
other Indic resources would be very welcome. There are lots of
kids from other Asian countries in our school - just not in my
class this year.

Suzanne McCarthy